Romanian lay people's and health professionals' views about the acceptability of physician-assisted suicide

Abstract

The conditions under which Physician-Assisted-Suicide (PAS) would be considered as acceptable among Romanians were examined. In July 2015-May 2016, 212 lay people and 52 health professionals judged the acceptability of PAS in 36 realistic vignettes composed of all combinations of four factors: the patient's age, the level of incurability of the illness, the type of suffering, and the patient's request for PAS. A majority of lay people (51%) and health professionals (85%) were opposed to PAS, quite irrespective of conditions. The most important factors determining acceptability were, for 36% of lay people, request for PAS and, for 18%, advanced age.